Marc Cabrera has nothing better to do than watch a lot of movies and television, and listen to a lot of music. Luckily, he has a job that pays him to blog about local and national arts, entertainment and pop culture. He can be reached at mcabrera@montereyherald.com.

Friday, December 05, 2014

That means more jam bands and live hip-hop, while staying
true to the reggae-based acts that have made it popular with its loyal fan
base.

Today’s third round artist announcement included popular festival
veterans SOJA and Iration, along with fellow reggae bands Pacific Dub and Soul
Majestic.

They will be joined by some first-time festival acts,
including Australian roots jam band the John Butler Trio, SoCal hip-hop icons
Cypress Hill, the Ethan Tucker Band, Cas Haley, and KBong.

The Cai Roots Festival takes place May 22-24 at the Monterey
County Fairgrounds in Monterey. 39 artists will perform, including The Roots,
Slightly Stoopid, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Tribal Seeds, G.Love and
Special Sauce, Dirty Heads, Steel Pulse, and Dilated Peoples.

The festival has leaned toward reggae-inspired acts during
its first five iterations. Festival producer Dan Sheehan said there was a
conscious effort to broaden the festival’s musical lineup while staying true to
fan tastes.

“With the lineup this year, we wanted to stretch our wings
without alienating the core audience that helped us build this festival,” said
Sheehan. “We don’t want to do things our core audience doesn’t like. We were
conscious of that.”

That core audience has helped the festival out weeks in
advance the past two years. Last year, the festival drew 11,000 fans per day,
utilizing the main arena stage.

The festival has built anticipation by revealing the artist
lineup in tiers. With the third lineup announcement, Sheehan said the festival
is entering new territory.

“It was important for us to expand our wings. We get lumped
in as a reggae festival, and yes, the core of our bands are reggae driven,”
said Sheehan. “But we don’t’ want to be considered just a reggae fest. We want
to be considered much more. It’s music, a conscious music festival. Just music,
good music. From top to bottom, that’s what we have on this lineup.”